Somewhere Out There
by ladybuguab
Summary: One of the men of Station 51 goes missing during a brush fire. Can they find him before its too late?


_Somewhere Out There_

**Disclaimer**: The Emergency! people own their characters and I own any that I may create over the course of this story. I am doing this for fun. No money is involved.

It was an unseasonably warm early summer morning. The winds had picked up and everything was beginning to dry out. For the men of Station 51, they knew what it meant: a heightened chance of brush fires.

Choosing not to dwell on the possibility, the men started their day.

Marco was elected to cook breakfast. It was sure to be something spicy. Unfortunately the meal never got cooked as the engine was called out to a rubbish fire.

Johnny and Roy elected not to wait for their return and had cereal for breakfast. They then moved out to the squad to do their morning checks.

"We probably need to run to Rampart for supplies. I have a feeling its going to be a busy day." Roy made the suggestion as he was completing his count of the drug box.

"Yeah. Me too," the younger medic replied.

They made the routine trip to the hospital and were returning to the station. Before they could get there, the entire station was called out to a "man trapped" call. Knowing from experience that this type of call could be anything, Roy and Johnny prepared for the worst but were hoping for the best.

Apparently, fate was smiling on them for this rescue. A man in his late 40's was pouring a cement patio. He was obviously not an expert. He was now calf deep in quickly hardening cement. While it wouldn't be a particularly difficult rescue, it would be time consuming.

After nearly three hours of carful concrete chiseling, the man was free. Since the man wasn't physically injured, just his pride and his pocket book from the wasted cement, he would not be transported to the hospital.

The men made quick work of the clean up and made it back to the station in time for lunch. The peace and quiet would not last long. Shortly after lunch, the men got the expected call. There was a large brush fire in the canyon.

….

Upon arrival, the two paramedics took up their usual post of administering oxygen for smoke filled lungs and washing out dust, ash, and grit filled eyes.

So far, this brush fire has been routine, if that word could ever be used to describe a fire. It was moving in the predicted pattern. If things continued going the firemen's way, they would have fire out in a few hours.

Speaking of predictable, its the one thing a fire isn't. The wind suddenly and violently shifted. As a result, Roy and Johnny got their first call out to the field just over an hour after they arrived on scene. Firemen from another station had been caught off guard by the sudden wind shift. Several of the men received significant burns and the rest were suffering from smoke inhalation.

Because of the number of patients that would need to be transported, Roy and Johnny were sent to the scene by helicopter.

It didn't take long for the experienced paramedics to triage their patients. While loading the injured men, the pilot made note of the number and size of the men. He mentioned his concern to both Roy and Johnny. The helicopter was already overloaded and adding more weight was extremely dangerous. After a long and heated discussion, it was decided that Roy would stay behind and hike over the ridge where station 16 was assigned and catch a ride back to the camp with them. Johnny would ride in the copter with the injured men. While not the ideal solution, it would have to work. They wouldn't pull any of the injured men off the copter to wait for it to return. And, due to the severity of some of the injuries, a paramedic would need to be onboard. The copter would still be overweight, but the pilot would have to manage.

….

Once the helicopter was safely away, Roy began the mile long hike over the ridge toward his ride.

It took nearly 20 minutes to reach the crest of the ridge. Roy looked down the slope hoping to spot Engine 16 and her crew. But, to his dismay, Roy saw a disserted canyon with quickly approaching flames. What was he supposed to do now? He would have to make a decision fast. He used his radio to tell the command post which direction he was heading. What his didn't know was that the message never reached it destination. It was lost somewhere among the canyon walls. Roy was now on his own, and he didn't even know it. Having made his choice, he began his hasty retreat.

….

Johnny and the helicopter had arrived in camp about 10 minutes ago. Other medics rode with the fireman to the hospital while Johnny returned to his oxygen and eye washing post to wait for Roy. A fire engine pulling into the camp drew his attention. It was Engine 16. Calculating the time it would take Roy to climb over the ridge, he knew that they were back too soon.

Racing over to where the engine has parked, he anxiously inquired about his partner. To his dismay, they had not seen him. To make matters worse, they had been forced to evacuate quickly because of another wind shift.

Johnny took off to the command center. He had to report that his partner was missing somewhere out there in the raging inferno.

….

After several failed attempts to raise Roy on the radio, he was officially declared missing and search parties were formed. Johnny had given the incident command all the information he could about where he had left Roy and which direction he was supposed to be moving. The wind speed and direction as well as movement of the flames was also considered. Those conditions would determine which direction Roy could go and whether or not he could outpace the flames. All would be necessary for determining if this would be a rescue or recovery. Even with the quick action, Roy had already been missing for more than two hours.

Since Roy was a member of Station 51, the entire crew was pulled off their original assignment to aid in the search for their man.

Receiving their assigned search location, Captain Stanley addressed his four remaining men. He outlined their area and gave some final instructions.

"I want everyone to stay within in sight of each other. Don't go splitting off. Remember, the slopes will be loose now that all the vegetation has burned away. They could give away at the slightest step. There may still be some hot spots out there as well. Please be careful. I don't need to lose another one of you out here too. "

The men acknowledged their instructions and moved forward to initiate their search.

Time continued to pass as the men fruitlessly searched to canyon. They had found no trail, no evidence, not a single sign that their missing man was any where nearby. They optimism was fading with the daylight. Eventually the men had to use flashlights and the spotlight from the helicopter overhead to see where they were going.

The tired men only briefly stopped a couple of times to rehydrate and eat the few snacks they had hastily shoved in their pockets at the command post. After more than eight hours of trudging through burnt canyon land and lingering smoke, the radio call the captain knew would come finally arrived. "Guys, we are done for now. Gather your gear and let get moving back toward the command center."

"CAP! We can't just leave Roy out here. What if he is hurt? With all this smoke, he bound to be having trouble breathing. He could already be dead and we wouldn't even know it. Cap, we can't just leave!" Johnny was clearly distraught with the thought of leaving without his partner and best friend.

"We aren't just leaving John. Another search team is taking over while we get some rest. We both know that we won't be able to help Roy if we can't even walk straight ourselves."

"I know Cap. I am sorry for yelling. It just…" He couldn't finish.

"I know John. I know. I feel the same way." Captain Stanley tried to comfort the young paramedic. "Just try to remember this. We are all fireman. We don't leave our men behind. One way or another, we will find him."

With that, the men began their slow journey back to the command camp. It was near two in the morning. Their man had now been missing for nearly 10 hours.

After arriving, the men were able to eat their first complete meal since lunch yesterday. However, they didn't enjoy it. They were too distracted. They then made their way to a tent filled with cots. While it was probably the most comfortable accommodations they had been offered today, there was no way they would truly be able to rest with one of their team members still missing. Fortunately the long hours of difficult work had the men asleep as soon as their head hit their pillows. It wouldn't be long before they would be back out there searching.

….

The 5 hours of sleep the men of station 51 got did nothing to ease their tired bodies. The still exhausted men gathered their gear and prepared to resume their search. A commotion on the edge of the camp drew their attention. An apparently uniformed man, soot covered and slightly coughing, came trudging into the camp area.

"ROY!! Is that you?" Johnny exclaimed, still not sure he was believing what his eyes were seeing.

"Yeah Johnny, its me. Or what's left of me." The obviously singed senior medic replied.

"Well, where have you been partner?"

"Out there." He pointed. "That's about all I can tell you." Roy sighed as he basically collapsed on the first empty cot he came to. "I thought the guys from 16 were just beyond that hill where you and the copter left me. Apparently, they left before I got there. I tried to follow their trail but I was cut off by the flames. In my haste to get away, I lost track of where I was. With the smoke so thick, I couldn't even tell which direction I was walking. And I couldn't just still and wait for rescue. I would have been burnt to a crisp. I just kept walking. Eventually the smoke started to clear, so I started walking south, knowing that I would come across civilization eventually. That was about 4 hours ago."

During Roy's explanation, Marco had gone to get the oxygen off the squad. "Here you go Johnny."

"Thanks Marco. Here Roy, I think you need to breathe some of this for a while." Johnny instructed.

"You'll get no objection from me. I feel like I've smoke an entire warehouse of cigarettes." Roy almost eagerly held the mask over his face.

Captain Stanley then spoke up. "Its no wonder we didn't spot you during our last search. Every search team is to the North and West. We knew you were originally walking north, so we assumed you would continue that direction. And since the wind was blowing west to east, we thought you might head west to get out of the smoke. Its good to have you back Roy." With that, the captain made his way to the command post to let the commander know that his missing man was now accounted for.

While the captain was gone, the men enthusiastically welcomed their friend back.

A slight smile appeared on the captain's face as he approached his men. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have been relieved of this brush fire. The bad news is that we are still on duty." Both elicited the expected reaction, relieved sighs for the good news and groans for the bad.

"Pack up men. Let's go home," instructed Captain Stanley. The men needed no extra motivation. They had their gear stowed and were in their respective vehicles in near record time.

"Get us out of here Stoker."

"Sure thing Cap." The engineered put his beloved engine in gear and pulled away, closely followed by Johnny driving the squad, with Roy still using the oxygen in the passenger seat.

At the sun was beginning to rise, they were finally going home the same way they came, as a team of 6 brothers together. They would leave no one behind somewhere out there.

END


End file.
